Thursday, November 22, 2012

Hero's Quest...Will Start After the Pillaging

Isn't that convenient. It's almost as if some force is conspiring to keep me in a confined area.

I've written the following in-character, with annotated references to some notes and commentary at the end. It's a slightly different way to approach blogging, but I thought I'd give it a try for a posting or two.

Day 1

At last, I've arrived in Spielburg. An avalanche conveniently closed the valley behind me just as I cleared it. I imagine I'm going to be stuck here for a few months. That means I'd better avoid upsetting the populace too much: If they run me out of town, I've got nowhere else to go.

The guy with the yo-yo turns out to be a "goon," which is an actual race in this game, somewhere between a human and an ogre.

As I wandered in the front gates, a yokel smoking a pipe on the front porch of the sheriff's office greeted me as Sheriff Schultz Meistersson (1). As a thief, I'm always eager to see who represents The Law. Sheriff Meistersson didn't seem like much to worry about, but his companion did: an ugly lummox appropriately named Otto von Goon. He was playing with a yo-yo. He worried me. Dumb people are easy enough to trick, but really dumb people are impossible to trick.

Nothing like confessing your own ineptitude to a complete stranger.

Right away, the Sheriff announced that the town was in need of a hero. Bad move, sheriff. That shows weakness right off the bat. Now that I know you can't protect your little town, the question becomes: will I protect it? Or will I take advantage of its lack of protection? I guess it depends on how much I like the people.

If he doesn't have enough men to handle them, he certainly doesn't have enough to handle me!

I spent a few minutes chatting with Meistersson and grunting with Otto. Apparently, the monsters that come down from the mountains every winter have been lingering longer than normal, and a group of brigands has been robbing merchants. He suggested I talk to someone named "Wolfgang" in the Guild Hall about the monsters, and a merchant staying at the Hero's Tale Inn about the brigands. I figured I'd head to the hall and see what quests were available. As my mentor taught me, there's no point going through the trouble of stealing when you can make your living honestly. Wait...I think that might be the other way around.

On the way to the Guild Hall, I passed a neat-looking little house with an old woman sleeping in a rocker out front. This is the kind of place I feel really bad about burglarizing because--you know--old woman. But she wouldn't wake up no matter how many times I shouted at her, so I figure anyone who sleeps that soundly offers an opportunity too good to pass up.

Well, I wasn't going to log my real purpose for being in town!

The Guild was an empty, drafty old building with only one occupant, an old man dozing by the fire (that's the source of this town's problem: everybody just sleeps all the time!). Heads decorated the walls, and I noted a moose, a saurus, a troll, a gryphon, a dragon, a cheetaur, and an antwerp. Plaques indicated that most of the beasts had been slain by Wolfgang Abenteurer, the guild master (who I took to be the old man by the fire). I logged my name in the adventurer's book and checked out the quest board.

The castle is looking to capture or kill someone called the "Brigand Warlock."

Killing or capturing the Brigand Leader will be rewarded with the title "Hero of the Realm."

I woke up Guildmaster Wolfgang and asked him about the various heads and notices. It turns out Elsa von Spielburg was kidnapped 10 years ago, when she was 8, meaning that she ought to be a comely lass of 18 by now. I'll definitely prioritize this one (2). Barnard, her brother, disappeared five years prior, and it doesn't look good: his horse was found with deep claw marks.

Wolfgang also shed some light on why the valley is so cursed with monsters. Baron von Spielburg used to be a "brave protector" and kept the monsters and brigands at bay, but he angered a ogre sorceress named Baba Yaga and she placed a curse on him. Wolfgang attributes to the curse the loss of both Barnard and Elsa, as well as the late monster infestation. The Baron has become a shut-in and is in danger of losing his land.

The dragon, it turned out, was one of two that came to the valley some years prior. The baron killed it (this was pre-curse), but the other flew away and is sometimes still seen flying high overhead. The antwerp was one of many that infested the valley, and it would have been overrun if two "tourists" from Andromeda had not shown up to drive them off. Wolfgang thinks Andromeda is up north somewhere.

It sounded like I needed to head to the castle to get some more information about the baron, his children, and this Baba Yaga, but I figured I'd explore the rest of the town first. My first stop was the mage's shop, on the same street as the guild, and boy did they go in for the flashy presentation. There was an eye above the door that followed me as I walked down the street. As I approached, flames erupted from the sign, and the front door just dissolved. Zara, the proprietor, appeared behind the counter in a bolt of lightning as her familiar gamboled on the shelf nearby.

Zara had several spells and potions for sale, but they were all beyond my purse for the moment. She told me about Erana, a powerful spellcaster who lived in the valley long ago and cast a spell that protects the town against violence and magic. She was buried in a glade called "Erana's Peace" someplace north of town, and it's said that adventurers can heal and rest there. I tried asking her about some of the other stuff on her shelves, but she got annoyed with me and disappeared. Typical mage.

The Hero's Tale Inn was run by Shameen, a Katta from the desert lands of Shapeir to the south, and his wife Shema. He told me that Abdulla, the merchant recently robbed, would be in the inn around suppertime. I took a seat and Shema came out from the kitchen to serve me. She was very scantily dressed, which would have been awesome if she wasn't...you know...an anthropomorphic cat. I dined on some fine lamb stew and left the creatures alone until later.

Cute.

Back at the main entrance, I tested what Zara told me about Erana's spell by trying to knife the sheriff. I couldn't bring myself to do it. But was that a spell or simple self-preservation?

I hope the spell doesn't apply to thievery, too.

The barbershop was closed, so I moved on to the other street. There, manning a booth that read "farmer's market," was--hell, yeah!--a beautiful young woman with long, flowing blonde hair, enchanting eyes, flawless skin, and...hooves. Goddamn it, that's what I get for looking at their faces first. She was a centaur, the daughter of a local farmer named Heinrich Pferdefedern. Oh, what the heck. I asked her out anyway (3). She turned me down flat.

A fine young filly if I ever saw one.

She had vegetables for sale, but I was a bit embarrassed by the rejection so I moved on.

The dry goods store, run by a confused old codger, had weapons, armor, daggers, rations, and ale flasks for sale for when I'm a bit richer. The bakery and butcher's shop were closed, and some kind of barn at the end of the street was locked. A nearby dark alley held only a filthy beggar. That left the tavern next door.

Don't mind if I do...oh, wait, you mean you.

Calling the tavern a "dive" would be an insult to dives. The floor was sticky with beer, and a pool of vomit covered one of the stools. In addition to the bartender, there were four occupants of the tavern: the barber, seated on a stool and nursing a pint of ale, the butcher and baker, playing cards (I could see no candlestick maker), and a goon named Crusher sitting on a chair, blocking a trap door.

I don't understand. Will the answers to my stupid questions be outside?

I didn't feel much like a drink, but it seemed like this was the place to ask about the local thieves' guild, if any place was. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of asking Crusher first, and he threw me out the front door for my trouble.

It was getting late, so I returned to the inn to see if Abdulla the merchant was about. He was, and in quite an agitated state. He related that the band of brigands, including a hooded leader with a high-pitched voice, a minotaur, and a giggling warlock, used magic to blind him and his six guards and assistants, then made off with their treasure. Oddly, the leader spared their lives. He thinks the warlock had "gnome blood" but otherwise had nothing to share but laments. I thanked him, gave him a couple of silver pieces (he was so grateful he promised to take me to Shapeir on his magic carpet once I recovered his treasure; sure, buddy), and left.

By then, it was full dark and the town gates were shut, and I was left with the option of purchasing a room at the inn or trying the non-heroic side of my trade. I decided there were too many great things in town to buy to remain a pauper, and I went about selecting my target. The butcher, baker, barber, adventurer's guild, and dry goods shop were all barred from the inside, leaving my only options the old woman's house and the sheriff's house. Deciding "no guts, no glory," I decided to go with the sheriff's house. It took me a few hours to pick the front door lock--it was a lot easier in the instruction book--but the experience was valuable for my skill, intelligence, and agility.

Who said "Snick"?

The first item I tried to loot was a little box on the coffee table. Unfortunately, it was a music box! When I opened it, it played a tune that woke everyone in the house (4). Fortunately, the sheriff thought it was Otto messing with it, and Otto, who got up in response to the sheriff's yell, was so tired that he didn't see me.

When Otto went back to bed, I wiped the sweat off my brow and pocketed the music box, along with a vase on the mantel and a candelabra on a desk. The desk itself held a few silver pieces. There was a safe concealed behind a painting with another bag of silver. I eyed the three bedroom doors before deciding not to press my luck and headed back outside. Success in my first job! (5).

The result if I hadn't ignored those doors.

The problem was, I still needed some place to sell my stolen loot. The thieves' guild had to be in the trap door below the bar; why else would the goon have gotten so upset when I asked about it? Heading back to the bar, I was distracted by a shiny glow coming from the alleyway. I investigated, and saw a gold piece just sitting on the ground at the end of the alley.

What happened to Erana's spell? (This is actually explained later by Erasmus: the spell missed the alley and the thieves' guild.)

I knew it was a ruse, but I needed to meet some thieves, so I walked into the trap. Sure enough, two hoodlums appeared from behind some barrels and demanded my money. They sure were disappointed when I made the thief's sign! They gave me the password to the guild--"Deutschmark"--and told me to give it to Crusher.

The guild was more dismal than the tavern above it, but at least it was a guild. As I entered, the guildmaster was ranting over the general state of professional thievery in Spielburg. He didn't want to talk with me until I paid the fee of 25 silvers, which I did gladly. (I was happy I saved my money.) At that point, I was able to sell my ill-gotten gains and buy a tool kit.

Intoxicated with my success, I decided to break into the old lady's house while the night was still young. There, I stole coins from her purse, some pearls from her knitting bag, a couple of candlesticks, and gave a petting to her friendly cat. I avoided a covered bird cage in the corner and slinked out.

When I was done selling those items, I had 3 gold pieces and 256 silver pieces to my name--much better than when I started. Unfortunately, I seem to have exhausted my supply of available targets within the town. Maybe there are more in the countryside. Or maybe I'd better concentrate more on being a hero.

A cool mini-game, only available to thieves.

Flush with cash, I decided to challenge the guildmaster to a game of Dag-Nab-It (6), which involves daggers and a dartboard. I bet small amounts of money while analyzing the best angles and force, but I couldn't get anywhere with it (7). After a few games, I was exhausted, but the inn was closed for the night (8). I tried going back to the guild, but it was closed, too. Having nothing else to do, I loitered around the town entrance until morning, climbing up and down the closed gate for exercise, and picking the lock on the barred barbership for practice.

This raises climbing skill, strength, and occasionally vitality.

The next day, I felt so flush with cash that I bought a "flame dart" spell and a healing potion from Zara, a bushel of apples from Hilde the centaur, and two extra daggers and two empty flasks from the shopkeeper. Thus girded, I headed out the front gates to explore!

Now which way shall I go?

Notes and Commentary

1. I'd love for Lori Ann or Corey Cole to comment on the person and place names in the game. They evoke a kind-of Bavarian theme, but do these names--Spielburg, Schultz Meistersson, Hilde, Zara, and so forth--have any special meaning to the creators?

2. Yes, I'm 40, but my character is only like 22, so it's not creepy.

3. Okay, I admit this is a little creepy.

4. The game's music has been very innovative: there's a cool track that
plays in the background when you sneak into a house, and the music box
in the sheriff's office played "Fur Elise." I'll make a recording at
some point during my gameplay. As much as I like the music in the game,
it has gotten "stuck" a few times, leaving me with a constant drone in
the background, and the only way to get it to stop is to fully quit
DOSBox. I'm guessing this is an emulator problem rather than a
programming problem.

5. Note how my score kept going up throughout the burglary job. I wasn't planning to rob the old lady's house originally, but I realized that a perfect thief score would depend on it. I've also been getting points for each person I talk to, various things I buy, and many other actions in the game. Since fighters and mages wouldn't be breaking into houses, they get their points through other actions. I know fighters get points for each different type of creature they kill, and mages get points for buying and casting spells. I assume the maximum for all three classes is 500 regardless.

6. Asking the guildmaster about "dag-nab-it" crashes the game--at least in my version. You have to simply type "Play Dag-Nab-It" to play.

7. I spent literally two hours logging the starting positions of the hand, what settings I used, and what the results were before I concluded that there was a strong element of randomness in the game, and success probably depends as much on the "throwing" skill as the settings. Later, after I improved the skill, I was able to win several times.

8. Sleeping is interesting in this game. You have to do it every day or two or you keep getting messages about getting tired. But you can only sleep at night, and only in a few select places: the inn, Erana's Peace (which I'll cover in my next posting), and the hermit's hut (also next time). If there are more, I haven't found them.

I'm really enjoying it so far! I've started over a few times to try different avenues and get different shots--what you've read above is really a composite--but I'm pretty settled into this character for now.

Dag-Nab-It: Yes, there is a random inaccuracy factor. The distance by which it deviates from your target is inversely proportional to your Throwing skill. Max out Throwing and you'll hit lots of bullseyes.

Ref: I'd love for Lori Ann or Corey Cole to comment on the person and place names in the game. They evoke a kind-of Bavarian theme, but do these names--Spielburg, Schultz Meistersson, Hilde, Zara, and so forth--have any special meaning to the creators?

I spent a year in Berlin as an exchange student in high school. I was surprised to find recently I can still "sort of" read German, looking up occasional words.

Not sure, but Schultz Meistersson might be a reference to Bat Masterson. Schultz just sounds German, might or might not have anything to do with Sergeant Schultz in Hogan's Heroes - "I see nothing!"

Zara just sounds magical. Hilde is a Germanic name, but her surname "Pferdefedern" means "horse feathers", a Marx Brothers reference.

The Baronet's name, Barnard, is significant, so I won't translate it here.

Baba Yaga is a common character in Slavic folk tales, and we borrowed ideas from those for her, but made her much more comical because we could. :-) Our Russian and other Eastern bloc players have expressed delight with our handling of her and the fact that she's in the game at all.

German is one of my least familiar languages, and I utterly overlooked a lot of the subtle references like "Pferdeferdern" (that sounded like something the Swedish Chef would say) and "Spielburg" meaning "Game Town." I'm really glad you came by.

My time as the German text translator seems to be over. ;-) From my memories I was not aware that this lot of German was in this game but maybe I played it localized and did not notice at all.

I'm still catching up on your Blog and thought it would be fine to leave a note where I am right now. Had to read a lot of Tricksters Blog recently to get HQ in parallel but now i should make good progress again.

And of course that's a reference to the Guys from Andromeda, Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy of Space Quest (and now SpaceVenture) fame. We decided the Antwerp was clearly a strange alien creature, so must be from their game.

Let's see. There's a moose head in the adventurers' guildhall because it was a tradition to use that same moose head art in every Sierra game of the period. There's a Starship Enterprise in the final credits movie because there's a Star Trek reference in every game on which artist Jerry Moore worked.

Erasmus's house has a "dunking dragon" because there was a "dunking bird" or such toy popular when Lori and I were kids. There's also a peacock that was directly lifted from KQ IV. And a few hundred other now-dated Sierra game and pop culture references. (Monty Python, Firesign Theater, all kinds of stuff.)

The idea was that most players would simply not notice 90% of the references, but that each player would catch a few and be amused by it. The ones they missed would just be considered odd phrasing.

I guess someone ought to create an inside-joke reference for our games sometime along the lines of The Silverlock Companion that (I think it was Bruce Pelz?) put together for the wonderful book Silverlock by John Myers Myers (highly recommended... We bought Benet's The Readers Encyclopedia just so we could follow up on references in Silverlock!)

The gargoyle at Erasmus' door asks you three questions before it allows you entrance, a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. One of the questions is "What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everythig?" which is a reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". (This is in the VGA version, if I remember correctly).

Followup: Lori says "Schultz" was just a name, and has nothing to do with Hogan's Heroes. That seems right - The personalities and appearance are completely different.

The guildmaster, Wolfgang Abenteuer - "Abenteuer" is German for "adventurer" (note all nouns are capitalized in German). Wolfgang is just a German name, no special connotation.

The bugs you ran into might be modern PC or DOSBox related. Hero's Quest was one of our most thoroughly tested games. There were a few patches released, so it's *possible* the "ask about dagnabit" bug was in the original, but unlikely. The broken sound bug means the game locked up or crashed hard without resetting the sound registers. That again would be rare.

You'll find more bugs in QfG2 and QfG4, both of which got fast-tracked through QA with a lot of known bugs and insufficient testing.

The first time I played through this I had similar problems with the sound, especially at Erana's Peace. I think it's something to do with Midi drivers in Dosbox. This time I'm playing it through ScummVM and not having any problems.

It looks like the password for the thieves' guild differs between playthroughs - mine was 'ach du lieber'. I'm at about the same place as you. I didn't realise I could play darts, and I missed the safe behind the painting, although I did try looking behind it - I'm guessing I was meant to "move" it instead.

I've forgotten that we had random passwords. I thought it was always "Schwertfisch", which is "swordfish", and a Marx Brothers reference. (In fact, I think there may be a trope that the password is always "swordfish". Apparently in HQ it isn't.)

It's fantastic to have the Coles along for the blog on this one.. it's like having Yoda ride shotgun for you! Congratz on making your kickstarter goals!Back to the game. For sleeping you can also curl up (at night) on the ground in front of the sheriffs office for a rough sleep, and don't forget the staple of all burgeoning heroes.. the stables. I am playing the VGA version and don't want to spoil too much of the differences, but I have this nagging pop-culture question. In the VGA version, what looks to be "Earl the dinosaur" from the TV show makes a cameo while walking through the forest, I don't remember this when playing on my Amiga, since the EGA version was before the show that makes sense. But why the plug/Easter egg at all? I can understand and often enjoy the little references they make to other sierra games.. but where does "Dinosaurs" fit?Also Chet, I wouldn't (and didn't) feel creepy about asking out that young filly! If she was 18 when the game came out that would make her about 41 this year, perfect age for us older players. =)

We were asked recently if we're furries. My response, "No, but we're furry-compatible."

Many of the jokes were added by artists and programmers on the team. One of the VGA version programmers was our good friend Richard Aronson. He added tons of puns, many jokes (some of which might be funny), and the Dinosaurs reference. Obviously he enlisted an artist to help on that one as well. Lori and I *might* have seen one episode of the show, and maybe zero, so it isn't a reference we would have added.

Richard is perhaps most famous for creating the "dread gazebo" meme in his "Eric and the Gazebo" story (based on a real incident). He was also lead designer of Ruins of Cawdor on INN (the ImagiNation Network, Sierra's online service). Richard was lead programmer on the Christy Marx Robin Hood game, Conquests of the Longbow, and worked on non-adventure/non-CRPG games post-Sierra.

Isn't that kind of presumptuous on the part of the programmers? I think I would have had a lot of conversations with them that boiled down to, "Let's get this straight. *I* write the story. *YOU* convert it to computer code."

Has anyone tried importing their characters into QfG 2? I decided to see how my magic-user character matched up with the new character. First things I noticed was one spell is missing from the new character that the import gets. Other than that, the new character had on average better stats and skill level in all spells. I guess I didn't grind as much as I thought.

The real reason I'm putting this out there though, when I imported my straight magic-user (no cross class skills), I found my character portrait was that of a fighter. I also had a shield added to my inventory. Does the import process turn everyone into a fighter or am I just lucky? The saved character was created from the VGA version, so maybe it's a bug just with that version. I'll beat the game a couple more times, creating different characters, and see if it happens again.

Well I don't need to read the entire posting in my RSS reader, I just need it to know that there has been another posting! I follow something like 50 blogs and can't be checking them all manually every day :-)

I am playing the anthology CD version, and I had some trouble importing my QFG(vga) character into QFG2. After some searching I found my issue was directory related, once that was worked out the import went flawlessly. I did come across several postings and an official Sierra patch/fix for your problem (turning into a fighter).

Crusher has no violent intent when he does it - It's just his job. There is also a possibility that the town had additional construction after Erana cast her spell, resulting in the new areas remaining unprotected.

I'm really happy you've started playing this, and also very happy Corey Cole is commenting here. Hero's Quest is the first RPG from my "top-10 ever RPG list" that you're reviewing so looking forward to seeing how this develops!

As a German, I love the funny use of my first language. And in contrast to many other games (especially Japanese), here it's even 90% correct and makes sense. BTW, I wonder if Baron Stefan is famous for theatrical plays ;)

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About Me

Chester Bolingbroke is a professional in his early 40s who really should be doing something more productive with his time. He lives in Maine with his patient wife, Irene, and when he isn't playing CRPGs, he enjoys traveling, crossword puzzles, and jazz.

The Rules

1. I am following a list of CRPGs in chronological order derived from several sources, including Wikipedia, MobyGames, GameFAQs, and contributions from readers. I am going in chronological order on two sections of the list: a) all RPGs in the 1990s, and b) non-PC RPGs that I missed during my first four years of blogging when I played only games released for DOS.

2. To appear on my play list, a game must be a a) single-player RPG released for a personal computer, and b) in a language that uses a Latin alphabet. Console games do not appear on my playlist unless they also had PC releases during their original release schedule (generally within 2 years of the console release). Exceptions made and ambiguity resolved at my discretion.

3. My definition of "RPG" requires the game to have three core criteria: 1) character leveling and development, 2) combats based at least partly on attribute-derived statistics, 3) inventories consisting of something other than just puzzle items. If I reach a game on my playlist and it lacks one of these items, I may mark it as "rejected" and skip it.

4. I can reject independent and shareware RPGs if they are clearly amateur efforts with no innovations or accolades attached to them.

5. I cannot use cheats. I cannot look at FAQs or walkthroughs until I have finished playing.

6. I don't have to win every game, but I must play for at least six hours.